Think the coupe convertible is a modern invention? Then think again – the first was built in the Thirties by a French dentist. Meet the granddaddy of all today’s coupe cabriolets – cars with a folding metal roof that retracts at the touch of a button. The idea became reality in the 1935 Peugeot 401 D Eclipse you see here – the world’s oldest surviving tin-top convertible. The car was the brainchild of a French dentist and would-be car designer called Georges Paulin who in 1927 noticed how a neighbor lost both his temper and his fingernails every time he attempted to lower his car’s canvas hood. Only 79 examples of the 401 Eclipse were ever built, although the technology was repeated on the 301 and 601, but it clearly made quite an impression.
